A healthy option for busy people

For almost a year Dinners on the Table has been providing an alternative to take out for busy people in the Hamilton area.

Owner/operator Josephine Blake turned her years of experience as a caterer and cook, here and in the UK, towards filling a need she'd felt herself at times.

The company provides healthy, pre-cooked meals from a set menu that can be customised to suit whatever dietary needs people may have.

The meals will keep in the fridge for a couple of days, and the only preparation needed is to reheat them.

While working long hours for a tableware hire company Ms Blake, without the time to cook a proper healthy meal, found herself eating badly with a lot of pasta and sauces; anything that was quick.

"I thought, as a busy working person, what is available that's not a takeaway but quick? It's very limited. In the UK supermarkets there's a good choice of pretty home-cooked looking meals that you can just reheat in the oven, but we don't really have that here," she said.

But it wasn't until she cooked at a short-lived store called Hazel's Counter that the idea for Dinners on the Table really gelled.

Hazel's Counter grew from Hazel Hayes cafe and was a place for customers to call in and grab pre-cooked dinners.

"We identified there were busy people for whom that was a great idea. Unfortunately where the shop was wasn't easy for people to get to the shop didn't survive," Ms Blake said.

She felt that by delivering she could get around the problem of access.

She rented out kitchen space from the Waipa Racing Club, started cooking batches of meals three days a week for delivery each afternoon, and opened a stall at the Twilight Farmers Market.

But the market's recent move out of central Hamilton meant that her target customers - busy professionals - were no longer stopping in on their way home from work.

On top of that, three cooking days were proving too much work for one person on top of the deliveries. Over Christmas, Ms Blake decided to ditch the stall and trim back to cooking on Tuesday and making deliveries on Wednesday.

"I've learnt a lot over the year. I started off with a model that just wasn't, financially or practically, working.

"You have to try these things and give them a chance."

Blake has built a database of around 50 customers with 10 to 15 regulars, and is steadily growing the company through word of mouth.

To help supplement that, she is currently working to get some of her product into local Hamilton stores where Ms Blake feels there is an overlap in potential customers.

She has also joined the Venus Network, a group of Hamilton business women who share advice and refer customers to each other.

"They're people who have been in business a lot longer than I. [It's an] opportunity for advice, it'll give me lots to think about," Blake said.